SHARANSKY GOOD CHOICE FOR POST

For nearly a decade, Anatoly Shcharansky was treated by his Soviet jailers as a faceless number rather than a man with a name. Now there is a possibility that when his new colleagues address him, they will precede his adopted Hebrew name not with a number, but with the title "ambassador."

The government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has hinted that Natan Sharansky may be chosen to represent Israel at the United Nations in New York.

While the selection has come under heavy criticism and is still subject to approval by the Israeli Cabinet and Shamir's Labor partners in the coalition government, it could be an inspired choice that would send an eloquent message of courage and freedom to the world organization.

An outspoken dissident and human-rights activist long before it became fashionable -- or barely even thinkable -- in the Soviet Union, Sharansky was accused of being an American spy and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 1977.

After nine years of harsh treatment in Soviet jails and labor camps, he was released in 1986 in a cynical exchange for a real captured Soviet spy. He migrated to Israel with his indomitable wife Avital, who had kept his name at the forefront of the Western conscience during their dozen years of forced separation.

Now settled in Jerusalem, the Sharanskys have become parents of two children and 41-year-old Natan has continued his crusading ways. While he has joined no political party, saying, "I have not found my place," Sharansky has sought to improve conditions for Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union and has called for a change in Israel's divisive electoral system.

Last year, he wrote a best-selling book, Fear No Evil, about his ordeal.

Some Israeli observers fret that the appointment of Sharansky might needlessly offend the Soviet Union at a time when the two nations appear to be moving toward normal relations after more than 20 years of alienation. They needn't worry.

The Soviets are nothing if not pragmatists. They revere strength and respect defiance in the face of adversity. Who could know or appreciate Sharansky's skills, toughness and guts more thoroughly than his former jailers?